The biggest thing I’m hearing from folks in my audience right now is many of you feel your job search has stalled. 

The job market has gotten tighter – fewer jobs are being posted overall – and remote jobs have always been flooded with applicants. This means even candidates who are qualified might not receive an interview. 

Many of you have been applying for a long time and are exhausted. And, for the educators and higher ed folks in my audience, you may currently be applying to fewer roles because you don’t want to leave your job in the middle of the school year – unless it’s a fantastic offer. You may also be facing understandable burn out from juggling a more-then-full-time schedule with a job search. 

Yet you still want to do something that moves your job search forward. It’s tempting to focus on quick wins right now – checking off jobs you’ve applied to or doing low-value networking. 

Repetitive, low-stakes work is draining and unintentional applications or networking rarely move the needle.

When your job search is stalled or you’re taking a breather, focusing on leveraging your current role (or a volunteer role) to take on additional responsibilities or projects can help you feel more energized about your day-to-day and have a positive ROI for your overall job search.

The Importance of Rest

When you’re feeling stalled, your first strategy is to give yourself time off! 

I want to encourage you to be okay taking some time off from your job search. If you’re starting a new school year, this is an exhausting time. If you’ve been searching for a while, new strategies are just going to feel like a chore. When we are overwhelmed, we’re more likely to spin our wheels than make progress. 

Rest is an essential part of the job search process. If you give yourself a good, solid break, you’ll be better prepared to apply to jobs.  

(If you’re worried about missing out on the perfect job while taking a pause, write down what that role would be and then set-up up a ‘dream job’ alert on Skip. You’ll get an email if that type of role comes up but can otherwise put your search on autopilot and relax.)

As you rest, replace your job search time with restorative activities – focused around community, movement, or creativity until you’re ready to jump back in.

The Remainder of this article is for Paid Subscribers. You can subscribe here and access the newsletter archive as well as find jobs at 400+ remote edtech/ed adjacent companies.